Discuss items in the urban core outside of Downtown as described above. Everything in the core including the east side (18th & Vine area), Plaza, Westport, Brookside, Valentine, Waldo, 39th street, & the entire midtown area.

In just a matter of seconds, a once prominent but now problem property will be reduced to rubble when the City of Kansas City performs a demolition that will improve the neighborhood by removing blight. Implosion of the old Park Place Hotel, 1601 N. Universal Ave., is scheduled for Sunday, June 24, at 8 a.m. — an event that will surely delight surrounding neighbors.

1. That building was in use for only 43 years. The carbon produced from building it is still in the atmosphere heating the planet for who knows how long.

2. We have homeless people who would benefit from having a place to live. If no operator could be found to reopen it, that hotel would have been ideal for repurposing for short-term housing and various social services that could help people get back on their feet. It had 300 rooms, conference rooms, a restaurant, dining halls, exercise facilities and a pool. But instead the out-of-town owner allowed it to be destroyed by squatters and looters. The hotel was still operating in the fall of 2016, so it was in fairly decent shape then.

It's in a location that is on a bus line. There would have been less uproar with it being a homeless shelter than had it been placed near an existing residential neighborhood, which is always a problem.

It's costing the City an estimated $1.5 million to demolish it. Who knows if they will ever get the money back from the owner? They will probably seize the land, and the parcel will sit vacant for years. The City is also losing former tax revenue from the hotel.

The owner of a nine-story Kansas City hotel appears to have left the country, which could cost the city about $1.5 million.

According to KSHB, government officials have been trying to locate Andrew Marin to pay a nearly $150,000 water bill and deal with the property at 1601 N. Universal Ave. The television station reports that Marin is now living in Brazil.

The Howard Johnson Plaza Kansas City Hotel & Conference Center closed abruptly last year and has since been looted.

According to a former employee, Marin tried to sell the 190,000-square-foot hotel, but when a deal for it didn't work out, he shut the hotel down and didn't return. Jaime James, who was the 250-room hotel's sales director, says Marin owes money to the city, vendors and guests.

James told KSHB that Wyndham Hotels pulled the hotel's Ramada flag more than a year before it closed, opting to give the owner a Howard Johnson franchise....

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The demolition of the former Park Place Hotel in the business park near Front Street and Interstate 435 came off about 8 a.m. and had been planned by city officials for weeks. The property had become blighted since the hotel closed in 2016.

Years before that, in the 1970s, the hotel earned its place in Kansas City underworld lore when an FBI wiretap on a lobby payphone helped expose an elaborate scheme in which crime families in several U.S. cities — including Kansas City — siphoned money out of Las Vegas casinos they secretly controlled.
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They should have seized the building and fixed it back up as housing and offices for the community college. The building would have been perfect for a residential dorm. There was a kitchen and dining hall. All the rooms had bathrooms, cable, and phones. There was a pool and gym.

I don't think MCC offers any residential housing, do they? It's kind of a big step and investment to get into that side of the business. It seems the handful of community colleges that do offer housing are in more rural locations. Not a commuter school system like MCC.

And if they did offer housing, there is NO WAY students would choose to live in that location. I used to work in that office park there, and it was rough down there. There is nothing but the Smuggler's Inn and a Waffle House (not that there's anything wrong with the Waffle House). I could see Penn Valley and Maple Woods being desirable, but not that business/tech campus.

WSPanic wrote:I don't think MCC offers any residential housing, do they? It's kind of a big step and investment to get into that side of the business. It seems the handful of community colleges that do offer housing are in more rural locations. Not a commuter school system like MCC.

And if they did offer housing, there is NO WAY students would choose to live in that location. I used to work in that office park there, and it was rough down there. There is nothing but the Smuggler's Inn and a Waffle House (not that there's anything wrong with the Waffle House). I could see Penn Valley and Maple Woods being desirable, but not that business/tech campus.

The tech campus is actually a super nice facility aside from some technology equipment being a bit old. I was inside it a couple time for technical tests and once for a community program. I don't see any reason why they couldn't offer more of a spartan housing option on this campus for someone who may not have any other options. Kind of a "get back on your feet" service rented out at a discount based on need and only while taking classes. Not a large dorm with food service and such but 20-30 units setup as studio apartments where they provide a bed, sink and microwave.

WSPanic wrote:I don't think MCC offers any residential housing, do they? It's kind of a big step and investment to get into that side of the business. It seems the handful of community colleges that do offer housing are in more rural locations. Not a commuter school system like MCC.

And if they did offer housing, there is NO WAY students would choose to live in that location. I used to work in that office park there, and it was rough down there. There is nothing but the Smuggler's Inn and a Waffle House (not that there's anything wrong with the Waffle House). I could see Penn Valley and Maple Woods being desirable, but not that business/tech campus.

I mean, they used to run a prostitution ring out of that Waffle House, but.....